Air-kerma is expressed in units of Gray and is known as the absorbed x-ray dose in air. Kerma is the abbreviation of kinetic energy released in the medium and refers to the amount of energy of an x-ray beam absorbed per unit mass.
In conventional systems for measuring air-kerma rate, a neural network can be used to predict an air-kerma area product for a radiographic x-ray exposure. The neural network is combined with an output scaling, which leads to a very complicated device.
In another conventional system, the air-kerma (rate) can be directly measured with an ion chamber. Such measurements, however, attenuate the x-ray beam and also give rise to additional failure sources of the device.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art for an apparatus and a method for an accurate, easy, and failure-safe determination of the air-kerma rate.